Pigs find new home in Newtown

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Hearn
got involved when her clients had trouble finding a new home for the pigs they had raised for the past 15 years. The Renner family sold their house in Brookfield to move to Nantucket, and couldn't take the hefty pets.

Hearn found the pigs pleasant pastures on a New Milford farm last week, but then the owner of that property decided to sell, too, and the pigs were suddenly in peril once more.

More than 75 people from all over the tri-state area contacted Hearn to inquire about Pork Chop and
Mary
, sometimes just to offer advice. Hearn also found she was fond of the pigs.

"They were at my open house and they greeted some potential buyers," she said.

The closing was Tuesday and new owners were scheduled to move into the former Renner home this weekend. If the pigs were still homeless, they faced a sad end.

But Newtown resident
David McKay
and his family welcomed the pigs into a doll house-like cabin on their 20-acre property late Tuesday.

"They are going to be fine," Hearn said. "It is a blessing. People are fundamentally good, and this is a demonstration of that truth."

The McKays already have pigs - one large landecker pig, two miniature pigs and another Asian pot-bellied pig. They also have several cows, a flock of sheep, two burrows and two miniature horses.

"I've spent the morning readying the house they're going to live in," McKay said. "I've done some carpentry work and laid down some hay. We've had several pigs in the past and we've done a lot of adopting."

McKay said he and his wife of 23 years have been animal lovers since childhood.

"I only had cats and dogs around me as a child," McKay said, but his wife, a retired registered nurse, is a pig fanatic who has been around animals her whole life.

"She really got me interested in cows, goats and everything related," McKay said. "It's been a fun time having the animals. On a farm, the animals have their own personalities. It is a full time job taking care of them but we really love it."